There was something missing from this plodding, at once obtuse and 'super' obvious, effort from J.G. Ballard.

About 100 pages too long, the tale of corporate (societal) corruption / perversion, subsumation and (not quite) messianism, not only could have been tightened up considerably, but also made more powerful with deeper insights into all of the psychological aspects at play: a wife's dissolution, an addict's delusions, a victim's need to deny by detaching... to forget, by remembering incorrectly...

A 'ringleader', Dr. Wilder Penrose, devious perhaps, but not quite strong, or evil, enough to bring about the full-scale nihilism of his ultimate vision for the Eden-Olympia business park.

And the novel's protagonist, Paul Sinclair - spiritual protégé of the book's true central character, a respected doctor turned mass shooter, David Greenwood... whose path Paul mirrors (in keeping with the book's Through the Looking Glass theme), eventually choosing wrong from wrong: Following Mass Shooter down the rabbit hole, versus committing to Not Quite Messiah and his experimental 'psychopathy as a release' world view.

Or wait: Release, via psychopathy, is exactly what Paul Sinclair -- and his spiritual mentor before him, the late Dr. Greenwood -- actually chose...

Prescient, Super-Cannes certainly is. Written at the turn of the millennium, creepily foreshadowing the corporate "Googleplex" and, indeed, an unsure new world's violently psychotic/terroristic eruptions - too often at the hands of a David Greenwood irl - this author lives up to the "controversial" and certainly "visionary" accolades he's often awarded.

Books, Blogs, Authors and More
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— last activity Dec 17, 2018 06:39PM
Need a place to advertise your blog? You can do that here. Need a place to advertise your book? You can do that here. Need a place to discuss books? YNeed a place to advertise your blog? You can do that here. Need a place to advertise your book? You can do that here. Need a place to discuss books? You can do that here. Need a place to... Well I've run out of things. Have Fun!
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¡ POETRY !
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— last activity 1 hour, 22 min ago
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read iNo pretensions: just poetry.
Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!)
Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here.
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"Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg
“God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton
On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin
“If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall
“Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak
“Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic
“Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert
“Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg.
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Amy King, Moderator
Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College....more

Goodreads Authors/Readers
— 29370 members
— last activity 34 minutes ago
This group is dedicated to connecting readers with Goodreads authors. It is divided by genres, and includes folders for writing resources, book websitThis group is dedicated to connecting readers with Goodreads authors. It is divided by genres, and includes folders for writing resources, book websites, videos/trailers, and blogs.
Feel free to invite some friends to join our Round Table community!http://www.goodreads.com/group/invite_members/26989-goodreads-authors-readers
-Vincent Lowry (Moderator, Author, & Photographer)
Vincent's New Literary Book:
American Vineyard
(Finalist in the 2017 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards)
*Masthead photo:
Washington, D.C.
(c) 2018 by Vincent Lowry.
http://vincentlowry.zenfolio.com/
Slide Show: http://youtu.be/QKOPP4kIGLc
Authors and readers are invited to check out these additional links:
1) The Author Resource Round Table on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/116489?group_id=26989
2) The E-Author Resources blog: http://eauthorresource.wordpress.com/
3) The Book Video blog:
http://ratemybookvideo.wordpress.com/
Other Books by Vincent Lowry:
Constellation Chronicles: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5976063-constellation-chronicles
...more